PRESENTATION OUTLINE
While doing missionary work in the slum tenements of Hell's Kitchen she hears of a child that is never seen. Only the whipping and screams are heard. She is often left alone in a dark boarded room. Many ask that Etta visit the child to see her condition. Wheeler makes her way and finds a thin, pale child looking of 5 years, only to find she is 9.
She did visit the police who state they can do nothing, and neither could the child-helping charities.
Determined to help Mary Ellen, Etta turns to the
Bergh then contacted the lawyer for the ASPCA after having an investigator visit the child. He also had the lawyer for the ASPCA find a legal means of rescuing her. When she made it to the courtroom the judge was so shocked at her condition. Her abuser was charged and convicted, the first ever on record and Mary was able to live on a farm with Etta's mother, then Etta's sister.
Mary Ellen lived to be 92, and at 24 married, then had two daughters of her own. One of which she named Etta, and both her daughters lived to be 91 as well. Bergh also founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which still operates today.
